Danny Puff

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who in 2003 revealed she was the biracial daughter of segregationist U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, died on Monday at age 87, her attorney said.

Washington-Williams, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of natural causes at a care home in Columbia, South Carolina, said lawyer Frank Wheaton.

Washington-Williams was born in 1925 to a black teenage girl who worked as a maid in Thurmond's parents' home when Thurmond was 22. She announced she was Thurmond's daughter in 2003 after his death at age 100 that year, and the late senator's family confirmed her claim.

Washington-Williams was a teacher in Los Angeles for three decades and was the mother of four. She moved to South Carolina about five years ago to be closer to a daughter who lived there, Wheaton said.

Her 2006 memoir, "Dear Senator," detailed her decades-long relationship with her father, the letters they wrote each other and the kindness he showed her personally, which she struggled to reconcile with his opposition to civil rights and his defense of racial segregation.

"She was very low-key and never wanted to rock the boat, I think that's why she kept her secret until he died," said William Stadiem, who co-wrote "Dear Senator."

Stadiem said Thurmond had great affection for Washington-Williams' mother, Carrie Butler.

"The fact he stayed close to Essie for all those years, it would be so easy for him to say 'get out of my life, you don't exist,' and he didn't do that," Stadiem said. "I think she reminded him of her mother."

Washington-Williams as a young child went to live with her mother's sister and her husband in Pennsylvania, and it was from him that she took the surname Washington. She adopted the name Williams from her marriage to attorney Julius Williams.

Thurmond began his career as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party in 1964. In his lifetime, Thurmond said he was not racist but opposed what he saw as excessive federal intervention.

He staged the longest filibuster in U.S. history when he spoke for more than 24 hours against a 1957 civil rights bill that sought to fight the disenfranchisement of blacks in the South by giving new powers to federal prosecutors.

In 2004 a statue of Thurmond outside the South Carolina State House was altered to engrave the name Essie Mae with those of his other four children on the foundation stone.

(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) A sheriff's spokesman says an investigation into a fight between Chris Brown and Frank Ocean will soon be closed without any charges being sought.

Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says investigators will speak with Ocean before closing the case, but the agency is unlikely to pursue a misdemeanor battery charge against Brown.

Ocean has accused Brown of hitting him during an argument outside a West Hollywood recording studio last month, but wrote on the social media site Tumblr on Saturday that he wanted the matter closed. Ocean's post stated he did not want Brown prosecuted and he had no intentions of filing a civil lawsuit.

Brown remains on probation for the 2009 beating of Rihanna and is scheduled to appear in court for a progress hearing on Wednesday.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Matt Damon is becoming a TV comedy regular.

Showtime said Monday that Damon will guest star next week on "House of Lies." He'll play what the channel called a "maniacal megastar" version of himself.

Last month, Damon staged a mock takeover of Jimmy Kimmel's ABC talk show, tying Kimmel to a chair and acting as host for a night. On NBC's just-ended "30 Rock," Damon appeared in several episodes as boyfriend to Tina Fey's character, Liz Lemon.

On the Sunday, Feb. 10, "House of Lies" episode, Damon seeks help in finding a charity to carry his name. The actor plays opposite "House of Lies" star Don Cheadle, his friend and a cast mate in the "Ocean's Eleven" movie franchise.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch was memorialized on Monday as an in-your-face, wisecracking leader who helped transform the city from a symbol of urban decay to the vital, glittering metropolis it is today.

As Koch's casket was led out of Temple Emanu-El, a soaring Fifth Ave. synagogue opposite Central Park, an organ played Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" while mourners including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a who's who of New York politics stood and applauded.

Koch died on Friday at the age of 88 in Manhattan -- the only place other than heaven he could imagine living, as he was known to say.

"I come today with the love and condolences of 8.4 million New Yorkers who really are grieving with you at this moment," said the city's current mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Speakers joked about the famously attention-loving Koch's obsession with stage-managing his passing. His grave-stone, complete with an epitaph and a bench bearing Koch's name, has been ready since 2008, and his friends said he had been planning the funeral for years.

"We started talking about his death in the '80s," said his former chief of staff Diane Coffey.

As mayor from 1978 to 1989, Koch, with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doin?", was a natural showman and tireless promoter of both himself and the city. He helped repair the city's finances as it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, and later led a building renaissance that would see 200,000 units of affordable housing erected or rehabilitated in some of the city's most crime-infested areas.

He could also be a divisive figure. His determination to shut Sydenham, a poorly-performing Harlem hospital that was one of the only city hospitals employing black doctors, angered black New Yorkers. And AIDS activists said he was too slow to react to the epidemic that ravaged the city's gay population in the 1980s.

Tall, nearly bald and speaking with a high-pitched voice, Koch was an unmistakable presence. He was famously argumentative, and rarely walked away from verbal jousting.

His friend James Gill remembered Koch's response to someone who had written a letter criticizing the former mayor.

"You are entitled to your opinion of me and I am entitled to my opinion of you," Koch replied. "My opinion of you is that you are a fool."

His nephews and grand-nephew and grand-niece remembered Koch, who never married, as devoted "Uncle Eddie" - eager to hear what they thought of his appearances on talk shows but also happy join his 11-year-old grand-niece for a manicure.

Clinton read from a stack of letters Koch had sent him over the years and said Koch had "a big brain, but he had an even bigger heart."

Koch remained relevant in politics long after 1989, when he lost the Democratic nomination to David Dinkins for what would have been a record fourth term as mayor. But when asked if he would run for office again, he liked to say, "The people threw me out and the people must be punished."

His endorsement was coveted by candidates decades after he left office. And his unwavering and loud support of Israel made Koch "one of the most influential and important American Zionists," said former Ambassador Ido Aharoni.

At Monday's memorial, Bloomberg noted the synagogue Koch had chosen for the funeral stood just a few blocks from the midtown bridge that had been renamed to honor him. Last year, the city released a video of Koch standing at the bridge's entrance ramp, calling out to approaching cars: "Welcome to my bridge! Welcome to my bridge!"

"No mayor, I think, has ever embodied the spirit of New York City like he did. And I don't think anyone ever will," Bloomberg said. "Tough and loud, brash and irreverent, full of humor and chutzpah - he was our city's quintessential mayor."

(Reporting By Edith Honan; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Alden Bentley)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The creators of "The Last of Us" aren't planning to tone down the post-apocalyptic video game's violent content, including a young, knife- and gun-wielding girl.

Neil Druckmann, the game's creative director, said the developers at Naughty Dog in Santa Monica, Calif., won't alter "The Last of Us," which features 14-year-old Ellie as one of the protagonists, in light of recent real-world violence, including the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The PlayStation 3 survival-adventure game casts players such as Joel, a gruff middle-aged survivor of a worldwide outbreak, who's tasked with protecting Ellie. Throughout "The Last of Us," the girl serves as a shrewd accomplice who guides Joel through abandoned buildings, gathers supplies and assists him in thwarting enemies.

"For us, everything in the game is necessary for the story," said Druckmann in a recent interview. "The reason Ellie is that age and the violence is that brutal is because of what we're saying with the story. You have to buy into the conflict and desperation these characters live under. If you remove any of those elements, the story suffers, and that's why we would never do it."

Some critics argued "The Last of Us" was glorifying violence after early footage of the game showed Ellie stabbing a hostile human survivor in the back, followed by Joel shooting him in the face with a shotgun. The cover for "The Last of Us," which is scheduled for release May 7, features both Ellie and Joel armed with guns.

"For someone like Ellie, because this is the only world she's ever known, things we would find horrific and that would probably scar us for life are just everyday occurrences for her," said Druckmann. "She can still, in a way, keep some of her innocence because of that. She pulls the humanity out of Joel, and this is really a coming-of-age story for Ellie."

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Online:

http://thelastofus.com/

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rising R&B star Frank Ocean said on Saturday he will not press charges against singer Chris Brown, who he said had "jumped" him last week in a parking lot fracas.

The encounter between Ocean and Brown still could derail Brown's efforts to remain in compliance with his probation stemming from his 2009 assault against singer Rihanna, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, a legal expert said.

Earlier in the week, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Ocean was "desirous of prosecution in this incident," which occurred on January 27 outside a recording studio in West Hollywood.

Representatives for Brown could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Sheriff's deputies had cited witnesses as saying Grammy-winner Brown, 23, punched Ocean, 25, in the brief altercation.

But Ocean on Saturday posted a message on www.frankocean.com saying he wanted to move past the incident.

"I'll choose sanity," he wrote. "No criminal charges. No civil lawsuit. Forgiveness, albeit difficult, is wisdom. Peace, albeit trite, is what I want in my short life. Peace."

Brown and Ocean both are nominated in the best urban contemporary album category at the Grammys Awards, which will be announced February 10 in Los Angeles.

On the day of the parking lot incident Ocean had said on Twitter that he "got jumped by chris and a couple guys." He also said he cut his finger and Brown was later photographed with a cast on his right hand.

Brown, whose hit songs include "Look at Me Now" and "Run It!," was placed on probation for five years for the assault on Rihanna. He risks having his probation revoked if charges are filed against him.

But if the judge overseeing his case suspects Brown broke the law, the judge could move to find him in violation of probation even without a criminal charge, said Steve Cron, a defense attorney not connected to the case and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law.

"Then, Brown would be entitled to have a hearing with witnesses and his lawyers questioning witnesses and so forth," Cron said.

Cron said prosecutors still can file charges even if a suspected victim does not cooperate.

If Brown is found to have violated his probation, a judge could send him to jail or order counseling, he said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said that if Ocean does not want to press charges, it would be difficult to proceed with the case.

Brown's entourage and that of Canadian rapper Drake were involved in a June 2012 brawl in a New York nightclub. No arrests or charges were brought in that case.

(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Bill Trott)

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TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Foxconn Technology Group, the assembler of most of the world's top-selling electronic gadgets including Apple Inc's iPhone, is trying to raise participation in its union as part of efforts to dispel a rash of bad publicity over poor working conditions and labor disputes.

Taiwan's Foxconn, which employs more than 1 million people, mostly in China at huge factory complexes, hit the headlines in mid-2010 following a spate of worker suicides and widespread allegations of poor conditions, long hours and low wages.

Apple, Foxconn's main client, asked the U.S.- based Fair Labor Association (FLA) to review Foxconn's operations last year following the troubles at its plants and criticism of Apple itself for having its high-priced gadgets made in low-wage Foxconn plants.

Foxconn said on Monday it was increasing the number of junior employee representatives in committees within the union representing its workers. It said all its sites had been holding elections to increase the number of such positions, and the management was not involved in the election process.

"As a part of efforts to implement the Action Plan that was developed together with the Fair Labor Association, Foxconn is introducing measures to enhance employee representation in the Foxconn Labor Union and to raise employees' awareness of the organization," it said in a statement.

Foxconn's latest plan follows recommendations in the FLA report. It has already implemented other recommendations and has increased wages and improved amenities at its sites.

Foxconn is the trading name of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

NOT MUCH CHANGE

Labor analysts said that while the latest plans show willingness on the part of the company to engage its workers, they would not mean much of a change, with the key being how the representatives will be chosen.

"Only by letting the workers choose their candidates by themselves and then vote for them can they fully express the hopes of workers," said Wang Jing, dean of the department of labor relations at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing.

"But anyway, it's a good to see this. It shows that the company wants to improve its relations with the workers," she added, noting that Apple was likely to be pushing Foxconn to implement change to protect its own brand image.

Foxconn's labor troubles are not unique in China, where many workers face much worse conditions, but because of the company's high-profile customers, which also include Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Sony Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd, it has attracted the most attention.

Others were skeptical that Foxconn's plans could lead to real change, given that independent labor unions are technically forbidden in China, and noted that previous experiments in worker representation in foreign companies have not resulted in much change.

"Foxconn is not the first company in China that has tried 'democratic' elections," said Anita Chan, professor at the China Research Centre, the University of Technology in Sydney, citing previous such moves by Reebok, Walmart Stores Inc and Honda Motor Co Ltd.

"They all caught a lot of international attention at the time of the union elections but all came to nought. It is all PR."

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, backed by the stability obsessed Communist Party, discourages worker activism and generally sides with management in labor disputes.

(Reporting by Clare Jim in Taipei and Beijing newsroom; Writing by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of BlackBerry rose more than 12 percent on Monday after Bernstein Research said it was upgrading the stock to "outperform" after last week's launch of the company's new line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

The brokerage firm, which has not had an "outperform" rating on the stock for more than three years, also lifted its price target to $22 from $12, saying it has grown much more confident about the success of the smartphones, powered by the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Shares of BlackBerry, which is in the process of changing its legal name from Research In Motion, rose 12.2 percent to $14.63 in midday Nasdaq trading. BlackBerry's Toronto-listed shares were up 12.1 percent at C$14.59 at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT).

The stock began trading under the "BBRY" symbol on Nasdaq on Monday and under the "BB" symbol on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock used to trade as "RIMM" on the Nasdaq and "RIM" on the TSX.

"We upgrade BlackBerry to outperform today as we believe BB 10 is set for a strong launch," Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said in a note to clients. "Even if the long-term prospects for the platform are very uncertain, we believe all is in place for BlackBerry 10 to enjoy a great debut."

BlackBerry, a one-time pioneer in the smartphone industry, has ceded market share in recent years to the likes of Apple's iPhone, Samsung's Galaxy line and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc's market-leading Android operating system.

In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced its new line of smartphones to much fanfare on Wednesday. However, its stock fell more than 10 percent following the launch as investors were disappointed that the new smartphones will only go on sale in mid-March in the crucial U.S. market.

"The strength of this launch is overlooked by investors, creating strong opportunity to buy BlackBerry," said Ferragu, adding that he expects strong initial corporate demand for the new devices.

"We believe BlackBerry should trade in the $20-$25 range once a decent launch for Blackberry 10 and a stabilized trajectory for fiscal year 2014 are priced in," he said.

BlackBerry unveiled both a touch-screen device and a physical-keyboard device last week. While the traditional keyboard model only goes on sale in April, the Z10 touch-screen device is already on sale in the United Kingdom and hits store shelves in Canada this week.

Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry said the U.S. launch was delayed until mid-March because U.S. wireless carriers have a longer testing phase than carriers in other countries. The devices, which are set to retail for C$599 ($600) in Canada, are currently attracting bids of more than $1,000 each on auction site ebay.com.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said initial checks indicated that sales of the Z10 in the United Kingdom were off to a strong start.

"Some stores had lineups out front with widespread sellouts of the white Z10 and limited stock of the black Z10. Also, our checks indicate that pre-orders in the (United Arab Emirates) and Canada have had a solid start," said Misek, in a note to clients. "These initial data points could provide some relief as many thought that the Z10 was dead on arrival."

Several analysts, however, remained skeptical.

GMP Securities analyst Deepak Kaushal cut his rating on the company to "reduce" from "hold" arguing that he sees "little at this point that will attract subscribers back from competing smartphones".

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn; and Peter Galloway)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is standard advice to get fit but some athletes and charity runners take it to the extreme with the run up the 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building.

For runners who will be racing up the New York landmark on Wednesday, experts advise them to pace themselves.

"People get excited and blast through those stairs," said Eric Talve of the New York Road Runners, which organizes the Empire State Building Run-up, now in its 36th year.

"The main thing is to run smartly - not to get out too fast and tire out."

Research has shown that normal stair climbing is an aerobic exercise that works the lower body and core and can burn calories two to three times faster than walking briskly on a level surface.

Gary Liguori, an expert in exercise science with the American College of Sports Medicine, recommends at least three months of preparation, such as squatting, lunging, running and stair running to prepare for a climb like the Empire State Building.

"I don't think you can just hop in and do a run-up," Liguori said. "It carries more risk than (running on a) flat surface and is much higher intensity."

Rick Feinstein, 69, of Jericho, New York, did the run-up twice about 25 years ago and thinks it will be harder and slower for him this time.

A triathlete who runs and swims five times a week, Feinstein had planned to train for the so-called vertical marathon by running vertically.

"I had ambitious plans that once a week I would run up a 40-story building. It hasn't happened," said Feinstein, who also has run 33 New York City Marathons. "And now I figure it's too late. Like everything else, I'll have to tough it out."

Twenty-five years ago Feinstein charged to the deck in 14 minutes. These days he said a great time would be under 20 minutes and a realistic one between 22 and 24.

"Someone used to say running up the Empire State Building is the equivalent of a hard 2-mile (3.2 km) race," he said. "While it's a tough race, it's just one hill. And you have handrails you can reach out and grab on both sides."

Feinstein is looking forward to the run-up, although with some anxiety.

The 700 to 750 men and women expected to scale the building's 86 floors range from elite athletes who scurry up skyscrapers around the world, to marathoners going vertical, to the approximately 200 entrants running for charities.

With such a wide range of abilities, Talve said, preparation is an individual matter.

"You can practice on a Stairmaster but it's not quite the same," he said.

The Empire State Building Run-up was the brainchild of New York City Marathon founder Fred Lebow. The inaugural Run-Up in 1978 was won by Gary Muhrcke, who won the first New York City Marathon in 1970.

The fastest runners take about 10 minutes to climb the nearly quarter-mile (.4 km) of steps, round the Observation deck of the iconic skyscraper and finish the evening run.

"We have wide mix of people who apply," Talve said.

Feinstein calls it the quintessential New York City race.

"You start in the lobby and everyone races through this narrow doorway," he explained. "It's like running for the subway."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Bill Trott)

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NEW YORK (AP) The Baltimore Ravens' victory over the San Francisco 49ers has set a record for highest overnight ratings in Super Bowl history.

The Nielsen company reported the game scored a 48.1 rating and 71 share in its select measurement of big cities. That's 1 percent over a similar measurement in last year's game.

For three years in a row, the Super Bowl has set a new record for most-watched event in U.S. television history. Nielsen is expected to have an estimate of how many people watched the game later on Monday.

One ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share means that 71 percent of TVs that were on at the time were tuned to the Super Bowl.

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